Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

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Mass

Introduction

It was apparently during the writing of the Credo that Stravinsky first had the idea of setting the whole of the Mass. This did not in fact come to fruition until 1948, though in the meantime he completed the Symphony of Psalms and Babel. When he did begin the Mass, he claimed that it was provoked at least in part by the purchase of some second-hand scores of Mozart Masses; ‘rococo-operatic sweets of sin’, as he described them. He also recorded that it was because he wanted to write a genuinely liturgical piece but using instruments that he set the Catholic Mass; in the Orthodox Church the use of instruments is expressly forbidden. One must also remember, of course, Stravinsky’s predilection for the Latin language itself.

The instrumentation consists of wind instruments only—two oboes, cor anglais, two bassoons, two trumpets, and three trombones—and the extraordinary sonority this ensemble produces in combination with the choir of men’s and boys’ voices is one of the most noteworthy features of the Mass. The music itself is austere and humble, but possessed of the kind of inner radiance proper to true liturgical music. The strange oscillating solos of the Gloria and Sanctus, for example, sound like refractions of Byzantine chant; the incantatory declamation of the Credo is simply a Russian Creed transplanted (as, indeed, was his earlier setting of the text); and all the movements have memories of the Catholic polyphonic repertoire all the way from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Stravinsky’s musical omnivorousness and the way in which he was able to filter this to create works of astonishing originality are well known. This applies to his sacred as well as to his secular music.

Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to men of good will.
We praise you. We bless you.
We worship you. We glorify you.
We give you thanks for your great glory.
Lord God, heavenly king,
God, the Father almighty.
Lord, only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Lord God, lamb of God, Son of the Father.
You who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
You who take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
You who sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.
For you alone are holy.
You alone are Lord.
You alone are the most high, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.

I believe in one God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God.
Begotten of his Father before all generations,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, being of one being with the Father,
by whom all things were made.
Who for us men,
and for our salvation came down from heaven.
And was made incarnate by the Holy Ghost
of the Virgin Mary and was made man.
He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate:
he died and was buried.
And on the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures.
And he ascended into heaven:
he sits at the right hand of the Father.
And he shall come again with glory
to judge both the living and the dead:
his kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, Lord and giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Who with the Father and the Son is worshipped
and glorified: who spoke through the prophets.
And in one holy, catholic and apostolic church,
I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
And I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the time to come.
Amen.

Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world,
grant us peace.